This disclosure relates to an aircraft landing gear unlock actuator. More particularly, this disclosure relates to an unlock actuator that when mechanically jammed will not prevent the landing gear from fully deploying.
Aircraft employ landing gear arrangements that must be reliably deployed from a stowed position during landing. In one type of arrangement, the landing gear is rotated about a pivot by an extend/retract actuator. A lock-stay is biased over-center to lock the landing gear in a deployed position.
To retract the landing gear, an unlock actuator pulls the lock-stay from over-center, which enables the extend/retract actuator to retract the landing gear to the stowed position. During the locking and unlocking sequence, it is possible for the unlock actuator to experience a mechanical jam. It is important that any mechanical jam does not prevent the landing gear from fully deploying during the next landing gear deploy cycle. What is needed is a jam tolerant unlock actuator that enables the landing gear to be fully deployed regardless of a mechanical jam.